A Critical Analysis of the Relationship between Delegation and Organisation Design, Authority, Responsibility, Accountability

Abstract

Delegation is seen as an important management tool for success in corporate governance. Among management concepts associated with delegation include authority, responsibility, and accountability; other variable that could also be associated with the concept, is organization design, two important elements of which include job design and job description. The relationship of these variables with delegation appears complex and confusing in the literatures. While some literatures opine that delegation involves transference of "responsibility” and "authority”, some others insist that responsibility is not transferable; that only "tasks” and "authority” could, while responsibility is exacted. Those who opine that responsibility is delegated bifurcate it into two "operational responsibility” and "ultimate responsibility”, the first is delegated; the second retained. The confusion arises when, in the literatures one sees only "responsibility” without qualification as to whether it is operational or ultimate. Another problem is how could a manager exact responsibility from a subordinate in respect of delegated task? We intend, in this discussion, to evaluate the concept of delegation, appreciate its relevance or otherwise, analyse these variables and identify their relationship with delegation, and offer recommendations where needed for proper understanding. We recommend that the confusion could be removed by applying the concepts of "responsibility” and "accountability” differently, though their meanings could be interchanged. Thusinstead of taking the tortuous way of qualifying responsibility as to the one that is delegated and the one that is retained, or to say that responsibility is entirely non-transferable,  and/or to save the manager from the fussy task of exacting responsibility, let it be known for all times to come that it is better to delegate responsibility and retain accountability.